


Under The Sea

by im_the_king_of_the_ocean



Category: RWBY
Genre: Day At The Beach, F/F, Fluff, Summer Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-25
Updated: 2020-07-25
Packaged: 2021-03-06 04:14:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,336
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25507276
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/im_the_king_of_the_ocean/pseuds/im_the_king_of_the_ocean
Summary: Ruby figures out a way for Penny to visit a coral reef even though, as a robot, Penny can't go swimming.
Relationships: Penny Polendina/Ruby Rose
Comments: 3
Kudos: 47





	Under The Sea

Going to the beach is supposed to be a fun, summer activity.

Penny rests her head on her knees.She gazes out at the waves where the others are splashing around and altogether having a good time.

She’s not having much fun.

Between keeping her blanket immaculately clean of sand (a difficult task _without_ the anxiety that some of the near microscopic particles will find their way into her cogs and gears and cause a catastrophic malfunction) and the knowledge that, if she joins her friends in the ocean, Penny will likely short circuit (and electrocute anyone in a five-six meter radius to boot), coming here has been significantly more stressful than relaxing.

Penny sighs.She just wants to have fun like everyone else.But she didn’t want to draw attention to herself when the group was deciding what they’d do for the day.Everyone was so excited at the prospect of a beach day.Penny didn’t want to be the downer who says she’d prefer not to go.

She’ll just sit here, on her blanket, and wait for the day to end.Then, she’ll say she had lots of fun and, since Ruby isn’t here, there’ll be no one to catch her in the lie when she hiccups.Sure, the others _could_ know what her hiccups mean, but Penny doubts it.They don’t know her well enough.

Penny told them she’d be fine, sitting on the blanket on her own, and they’d believed her, after all.

Although precisely every ten minutes Nora runs out of the ocean to flop down next to Penny and ask her how she’s doing, and start chatting so fast Penny has a hard time keeping up.Ren will join them, arriving at a much slower walk.He’ll adjust the umbrella he acquired from a vendor so it’s still keeping Penny out of direct sunlight (and danger of overheating).

Penny knows they, and everyone else too, _do_ care.It’s just…hard.To be reminded that she’s not like them.Not really.She wishes she was.She’d love to be able to jump in the ocean, swim into an oncoming wave, dip below the surface to see all the sea creatures that live underwater.But she wasn’t built with that much water resistance.She can survive rain, but not full submersion.

“Hey, Penny!”

Penny jerks her head up.She whirls around.Squints in the direction of the voice.“Ruby?But I thought—”

“I couldn’t make it?Pfft, I’d never miss a fun day like this.”Ruby plops down next to Penny.“Plus, the mission ended earlier than expected.I can’t think of any better way to spend my time.Ahhh.”She lays down on her back, crosses her arms behind her head, and closes her eyes.

“Oh, okay.”Penny tries a half-hearted smile.She _does_ enjoy Ruby’s company.But, the idea of _her_ leaving Penny to go swim in the ocean is just, somehow, a little worse, than everyone else doing it.

They sit in silence for five minutes.

Ruby cracks an eye open to look at Penny.“So…” she begins.“You wanna go somewhere really cool?”

“Where?”Penny cocks her head, equally curious and nervous.Ruby _should_ be aware of Penny’s inability to go swimming in the ocean, but what if she’s not?What if she’s about to ask Penny to go in the water with her and Penny will have to say ‘no’, and then Ruby will go anyway, and, and…

“You’ll see.”Ruby grins.She stands up and holds out a hand to Penny.“Trust me, you’ll love it.”

Penny places her hand in Ruby’s, taking comfort in how nice it feels.“I…okay.”

They walk back up the beach to the boardwalk.For a moment, Penny is hopeful Ruby is taking her to play the carnival games there.She enjoys those quite a lot.Her superhuman strength and dexterity mean she can win a lot of them quite easily.Penny wouldn’t mind seeing Ruby blush as she hands her yet another giant stuffed animal again.

They pass the games.Penny frowns.Ruby leads her to a nondescript building at the end of the road.They enter and Ruby purchases two tickets from the person working the front desk.If she wasn’t with _Ruby_ , Penny would find all this very strange and kind of unnerving.But, there’s no one (except maybe her father), who she trusts more than Ruby, so she remains calm.

Ruby leads Penny to an escalator leading down somewhere Penny can’t see.She stops and turns back to face Penny.“Close your eyes,” Ruby tells her softly.

Penny hesitates.She bites her lower lip.She looks into Ruby’s steady gaze.Then, Penny closes her eyes.Ruby guides her onto the escalator.They ride down.The air around them slowly gets colder the further they go.Penny vibrates as her thermal sensors notify her heating system to adjust accordingly.

Penny feels Ruby drape her cloak around her shoulders.Her circuits nearly overheat and malfunction as a sudden burst of pleasant emotion tries to overload them.

“Okay, you can open your eyes now,” Ruby finally says when they reach the bottom of the escalator.

Penny does.She gasps.Her hands fly to cover her mouth.She stares at the sight before her in awe.

They’re standing in a large room with people milling about.One wall is completely made of thick glass.On the other side of the glass is the ocean.Penny can see a coral reef and dozens of different types of fish swimming around.Sun shines down from above, casting shimmering light ripples over everything.

Without thinking, Penny rushes up to the glass wall and presses her hands against it.She’d never really believed she’d ever get to see a sight like this.Not really.Sure, there’s video and pictures, but her inability to go in water would forever mean she couldn’t see aquatic life in person.Yet, here she is, watching a smack of jellyfish drift by.

Ruby comes up next to her.“If you like this, just wait until you’re in a tunnel.”

“A tunnel?”

Smirking, Ruby holds out her hand for Penny to take.When Penny does, she leads her over to an entryway leading into a long, glass, tube tunnel that travels out under the ocean.Underwater life surrounds them as they walk down it.Kelp drifts peacefully on either side.Small orange and purple fishes dart in and out between the leaves.Overhead a manta ray swims by.Penny stops, gasps, and watches it enraptured.

The tunnel opens up into a small, round, observation room.Penny and Ruby pause to rest on a cushioned bench there.Penny’s barely sat down when she sees something that causes her to jump up again.

“Ruby!Ruby, look!That’s a _whale_!A WHALE!”Penny points excitedly at the far off shape of the massive sea creature going about it’s business.

Ruby smiles at her fondly.“Yup.”

“Oh, Ruby, thank you, _thank you_!This is so wonderful!I can’t believe I didn’t know this place existed and—oh look at that!I wonder what kind of fish that is?”

“I don’t know,” Ruby’s voice is slightly quieter now.Hesitant.Penny’s grin falls from her face.What can be wrong?“There’s something else, Penny.”Ruby looks away.“I wanted to get you away from everyone else today because I…because there’s something I need to…”She trails off and the next thing Penny knows, she’s being kissed.

Penny gasps, drawing away from the kiss.She lets out a yelp, fearful that Ruby will withdraw and they won’t get to truly kiss.Instinctively, Penny wraps her arms around Ruby in an embrace to keep them together.There’s some fumbling, an awkward laugh from both of them, and then Penny and Ruby slowly, gently, press their lips together again.

All around them, sea life swims or drifts by.None of the fish really pay attention to them.This is Ruby and Penny’s (almost) impossible moment under the sea.


End file.
